English 572: Women's Autobiography and Bildungsroman
Professor Kathryn Conrad
Thursdays, 7-9:20 pm * 107 Smith * Spring 2001
Administered on Blackboard
Course Description
In this course, we will examine two popular and powerful literary genres embraced and challenged by women writers over the years: the autobiography and the bildungsroman. We will read and discuss these works with attention to a number of questions: what is the self? what conditions affect the development of the self? what does gender have to do with selfhood and authorship? What is the subject of autobiography? What choices must be made when making a life into a narrative? What is the relationship between authorship and authority?
Texts and Requirements
Authors whose works we will read will include C. Bronte, Jacobs, Woolf, Cisneros, Kingston, and Lorde, among others. Students will help select at least one other text or film for discussion. Students will be expected to write two long papers, participate in classroom and occasional online discussion, and take a final examination.
Other information
This course is cross-referenced with Women's Studies. This course was administered through Blackboard. Visitors may use the user id guest and password guest to visit the course.
Schedule
This schedule is subject to change!—see this site for updates and more detailed information.
| Date | Reading |
|---|---|
| 1/22 | Introduction. |
| 1/24 | Portrait, I. |
| 1/29 | Portrait, II-III |
| 1/31 | Portrait, IV |
| 2/5 | Portrait, V |
| 2/7 | Meet at Spencer Research Library, behind Strong Hall. Prior to class, read poems, TBA (online) including "Gas from a Burner" |
| 2/12 | Dubliners, "The Sisters," "An Encounter" |
| 2/14 | Dubliners, "Araby," "Eveline" |
| 2/19 | Dubliners, "Two Gallants," "The Boarding House" |
| 2/21 | Dubliners, "The Boarding House" (cont), "A Mother" [SNOW DAY] |
| 2/26 | Dubliners, "A Little Cloud," "Counterparts" [SNOW DAY] |
| 2/28 | Dubliners, "The Boarding House" (cont, end), "A Mother," "A Little Cloud," "Counterparts" |
| 3/5 | Dubliners, catch-up; "The Dead" |
| 3/7 | Ulysses, 1-2. Annotated bibliography due. [note date change] |
| 3/12 | [quick presentation about GAP certificate at start of class] Ulysses, 3 |
| 3/14 | Ulysses, 4-5 |
| 3/19 | SPRING BREAK. |
| 3/21 | SPRING BREAK. |
| 3/26 | Ulysses, 6-7 |
| 3/28 | Ulysses, 8-9 |
| 4/2 | Ulysses, 10. 1-page proposals due. |
| 4/4 | Ulysses, 11 |
| 4/9 | Ulysses, 12 |
| 4/11 | No class: work on drafts. |
| 4/16 | Ulysses, 13 |
| 4/18 | Ulysses, 14. Drafts due, with completed evaluation form. |
| 4/23 | Ulysses, 15. |
| 4/25 | Ulysses, 16 |
| 4/30 | Ulysses, 17 |
| 5/2 | Ulysses, 18; discussion of final |
| 5/7 | Finnegans Wake, pp. 260-70, 308. [Check out my crib sheet; see above for links to Joyce reading from the Wake and for the song "Finnegan's Wake."] |
| 5/9 | Finnegans Wake. Last day; evaluations. Papers due (final draft). |
| 5/15 | 1:30-4 Final examination |